Non-Violence and Compassion: A Path to Healing in Gaza and the Middle East | Thay Phap Luu
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 มิ.ย. 2024
- Thay Phap Luu reflects on Thich Nhat Hanh's (Thay's) life and teachings, highlighting his journey from Vietnam and his commitment to engaged Buddhism.
"Thay lived a very remarkable life, and he trained his students to be a continuation of that remarkable life." Thay's resistance to violence and his efforts to unify the Buddhist community in Vietnam, as well as his collaborations with international figures like Martin Luther King Jr., emphasized a shared vision of nonviolent resistance and social transformation. The present situation in Gaza calls for collective healing of intergenerational trauma through mindfulness practice in community.
The talk concludes with a new English translation of a poem by Thay, "Festival of a Thousand Stars," which reflects on compassion and breaking free from the confines of rigid laws. The session closes with a reminder of the joy and transformative power of living and practicing mindfulness in community, embodying the legacy of Thich Nhat Hanh's teachings.
This Dharma talk was recorded from the Ocean of Peace Mediation Hall at Deer Park Monastery on June 9th, 2024.
Thank you dear monastic siblings for all that you do. Your words and actions are like a wet facecloth on my fevered forehead.
This Dharma talk touches me very deeply. It is a beautiful reminder of how I need to remind myself again, and again, and again again to move like a river. Thank you for the conditions you gather together to help make this world more just and compassionate.
My very new practice just avoided a disagreement 😁
Thank you for your wisdom and beauty Brother Phap Luu. We hear you around the world! Together we pray and act - to end the violence and suffering of those in the Middle East and beyond.
I noticed 3 bells today that showed me how I was reacting to being belittled and how I could practice to water the seed of my confidence so as to react more peacefully
1:11:55 "This poem was written to the French ambassador of Singapore who was able to give rise to a heart of compassion and to look beyond what Thay called the "iron mesh" of the law. In Vietnamese it's called Building a Bridge". Brother Phap Luu did a translation of it recently which he called
Festival of a Thousand Stars.
There's a parasol tree on which the Phoenix alights.
Someone stands there offering love from deep within
as laws, which so often serve as an iron mesh,
imprison people in a cycle of torment,
but compassion, like the hand of the Buddha,
breaks hell and shatters sorrow.
This morning the city is bathed in vast sunlight
with doves soaring high in the sky.
I think of you,
your steadfast heart,
and your cool soothing smile,
like miraculous water.
Children miss their loved ones
like flowers yearn for the sun,
like water longs for its source,
like the moon misses the stars.
Once our heart is resolved,
violence holds no fear.
Braving storms, we step into life,
spanning the depths of hell to heaven's heights
with a bridge
to host a festival of a thousand stars.
(Transcribed from the transcript of the video.)
Thank you so much for sharing the poem here. ❤
Thank you. Beautifully presented. Question: calm for the individual is always good, but is peace and calm always enough societally? Does fairness and justice ever justify violence?
Civil war...bad idea? Naziism...worth fighting? Can we just peace and calm everything out?
Doesn't nonviolent protest rely on the good will and humanity of others? What if they don't care about our calm?
At the end of the day, all we can really do is get ourselves (or nonselves) in order...but I don't feel it will always cause justice to prevail...indeed, the very word jutice implies picking sides, making distinctions, judging...
Also wondering about whether engaged Buddhism necessarily involves taking side. To address social problems seems to be inextricably intertwined with making judgments of good, or bsd……IMO 7 day water fasts are defiantly GOOD!
I think the teaching is to remain peaceful as much as possible, in all the little things, in the hopes that more people will be provoked to anger less so this continues to spread and we hope ultimately results in world peace
What about deep unavoidable conflicts with really aggressive unreasonable unkind others who want to screw you? In a climate emergency world, won't conflicts get uglier and more desperate? Is peace only a workable answer in a non zero sum world? Is this response any different than offering "thoughts and prayers" in response to tragedy?
Not that I have any better idea how to respond. It just sometimes feels...selfish. Like, we embrace the idea of non self to overcome our own suffering....others come later, if at all...
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